


Pay what is owed

by TheLestrangeMistress



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Curse Breaking, Gen, Gen Work, Pre-Hogwarts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-04
Packaged: 2019-06-23 22:57:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15616875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLestrangeMistress/pseuds/TheLestrangeMistress
Summary: The sound sent a chill down Bill’s spine every time he heard it. He didn’t doubt that the voice was real anymore, even though he seemed to be the only one able to hear it.





	Pay what is owed

**Author's Note:**

> **Title:** Pay what is owed  
>  **Prompt:** #044, voices on the wind  
>  **Pairing(s)/Character(s):** Bill Weasley, OFC, OMC  
>  **Warning(s):** slightly creepy, and mentions murder  
>  **Disclaimer:** Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.  
>  **Notes:** Thank you to williamsnickers for betaing. The story diverts from the prompt a little, but I hope the prompter can forgive me.

A sandstorm was raging outside Bill’s tent and he hoped that it would stop soon, but he had a feeling that it wouldn’t.

Ever since the team had discovered the tomb of a wizard older than the first ancient Egyptian dynasty a week ago, the desert winds had been on the rise. The winds carried a harsh voice that spoke in a language he didn’t understand. At first he thought he had imagined it, but over the days the voice grew in volume as did the winds. The sound sent a chill down Bill’s spine every time he heard it. He didn’t doubt that the voice was real anymore, even though he seemed to be the only one able to hear it.

 _I can’t believe I didn’t tell them about it_ , Bill thought.

Even in the wizarding world, hearing voices was a sign of madness, and he didn’t want to end up in the local version of the Janus Thickey ward, but this had gone on too long and he knew that telling Alex was the best thing to do.

Bill apparated to his team leader’s tent hoping that the man was still awake.

“Weasley, what are you doing here?” Alex asked, frowning.

He was sat behind a desk with books and parchment scattered all over it. It was obvious that he was trying to figure out what was wrong and how to fix it.

“I have something to tell you,” Bill stated before he went on to tell Alex everything about the voice; how creepy it sounded, how it got stronger, and how furious it seemed.

“So you’re saying that you heard a voice speak in a language you don’t understand, that it got worse the more items we removed from the tomb, and that it sounded furious when we removed the sarcophagus. Why the hell didn’t you say anything sooner?” Alex asked angrily.

“I didn’t want you to think that I was mad,” Bill admitted.

“I can understand that, but if it happens again, then please tell whoever is leading the team. Did they never teach you about Howard Smith during your training?” he asked, sounding concerned.

“No they didn’t, and I never came across his name when I did the extra reading either,” Bill told him.

“Howard Smith was one of the best curse breakers of his time. He lead the excavation of another tomb older than the first dynasty when he started hearing a voice with the winds as well. He never informed the rest of his team, or Gringotts, and suffered the consequences for it. The night after his team had removed the last item from the tomb, the winds howled outside like they are doing now, and his team died in horrifying ways to satisfy a curse which had stayed dormant until that point. 

“There was an internal inquiry which found that their deaths could have been avoided if he had confessed about hearing the voice, and told them to put back everything they had removed. When Smith was asked why he didn’t tell them, he gave the same answer that you did; he didn’t want them to think he was mad.”

Bill felt sick at hearing the rest of the team was in danger because of him. All of this could have been avoided if he had just spoken up.

 _If they die it’s my fault_ , he thought.

“I know you must be upset, but there is a way to fix this. All we have to do it put everything back into the tomb.”

“How are we going to do that when we can’t walk out of the tents, or apparate into the tomb?” Bill asked.

“You know how to read ancient Egyptian, don’t you?”

Bill nodded.

“Then try to communicate with the voice and tell it that you want to put everything back, but you can’t until they have dropped the wind. If that doesn’t work, then we will have to think of something else,” Alex said.

The idea seemed completely crazy to Bill, but he would try and do anything to stop the rest of the team from being killed.

“Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and focus on what you want to do,” Alex instructed him.

After a few moments, Bill felt relaxed and focused on trying to communicate with the entity. He let the words flow through him until he found the right ones.

_Protector, please listen to my plea. Please lower the winds so we can return what was taken from you._

Bill chanted the words in his mind over and over again in English, whilst he was thinking of the sentences in hieroglyphics so the voice could understand what he was trying to say.

“It is too late now,” a high, cold voice said, laughing. “You shall pay what is owed.”

The cruel laughter echoed in his mind until there was only darkness.

“Bill, are you alright?” someone asked as he began to open his eyes.

“Stop crowding the poor lad, and let him wake up properly before you start asking him questions,” Alex chided them.

As Bill looked around he noticed that the whole team was there and their expressions suggested that they knew what had happened.

“I’m sorry,” he said, hanging his head.

“You told us in the end, that’s the important thing,” Jo said.

“What did it say to you?” Alex asked.

“That it was too late, and that I would pay what is owed. We need to find another way,” he replied.

After a few moments of everyone shooting down different ideas which wouldn’t work, Jo came up with one that had some merit.

“So you’re saying that if we put on these suits and we would be able to walk in the storm?”

“Yes. They have a helmet which has clear plastic so you can see out of it, and the suit covers everything else including the hands and feet,” Jo explained.

“How would we fit in the tomb though?” someone asked.

“You wouldn’t need to take anything off. The passageway and tomb are tall and wide enough. The only problem we will face is not getting blown away.” she explained.

“You just said we would be alright in them?” Adam accused.

“I said that they would protect against the sand. I didn’t say anything about the wind.”

“What if we tied unbreakable ropes onto everyone and tethered them to something?” Bill suggested. 

“That could work. We did reinforce that metal loop coming out of the ground to keep the tents chained to the floor.”

“Now we’ve got that sorted, what do we put back first?”

“The sarcophagus. It was only after that had been removed that it suddenly got worse. It might appease the entity enough to drop the winds.” Alex told them.

“And if it doesn’t?”

“We’re curse breakers, aren’t we? The next step would be to try and remove the curse causing this,” Alex said.

Bill took a step back from the conversation as he found the whole thing overwhelming. He couldn’t believe that he had screwed up within the first couple of months in the field. He should have known better and gone to Alex the moment he heard the chilling voice.

“Don’t worry, Bill.” Jo said quietly as she sat down next to him.

“This is all my fault,” he replied.

“No, it’s not. Every one of us would have thought twice about telling the truth. Anyone who says any differently is lying,” she said, shaking her head.

After all the details had been sorted out, Jo transfigured the clothes for the members of the team into the suits that would keep them protected. The most dangerous part of the plan was tethering all of their ropes to the metal loop outside as the person who was going to do it could get blown away in the process.

“Alright everyone,” Alex said, getting their attention once again, “I will give a sharp tug on your ropes to let you know when I’ve finished securing everyone out there. If you don’t feel a tug after ten or fifteen minutes then assume I’m gone and do not come out after me.”

He strode out of the tent and into the storm. 

The next fifteen minutes were extremely tense and Bill thought he was going to be sick with the anxiety that was running through him, until he felt a sharp tug on his rope. He looked around to confirm that everyone else had felt the tug too. They had, and they were filing out one by one.

The force of the wind made them stagger back when they first came out, and then it was almost as if they were wading through a river.

The voice was so deafening that it nearly burst Bill’s eardrums, but he now understood what it said. 

_Mine, mine, mine! Your blood will be mine! There is nothing you can do to stop me._

A chill went down his spine upon hearing it, and he wasn’t sure whether or not to tell the others about this development. 

Even though it seemed like it had taken longer, they reached the other tent in about ten minutes. All the treasures from the tomb were stacked up neatly with the sarcophagus in the middle.

I have no idea how we are going to get near the tomb, he thought.

“I’ve reversed the featherlight charm on the sarcophagus. It’s going to be heavy to carry, but hopefully the weight of it will prevent us from being blown over,”

It took a little while to get everything sorted, but once it was, they all stepped forward into the storm once more.

 _You dare try and stop me! You will fail and I will make you watch as I kill your friends one by one,_ the voice raged in the background.

It was out for blood even more, and Bill couldn’t even tell his teammates until they reached the tomb. He hoped that they all survived until then. All he had to do was keep going.

The wind whipped around them, trying to topple them over and make them fail, but they carried on. And as they carried on, the voice got louder and more enraged until Bill thought that he would go deaf.

Once they reached the entrance of the tomb, the force of the wind strengthened even more, and without any warning they became unbalanced. One of the members had been blown away.

 _At least he has an unbreakable rope_ , Bill thought, as he tried to convince himself that everything would be alright.

There was nothing any of them could do but try and move forward to stop this, and when all of them were safely in the passage, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

“We’re not out of trouble yet, so don’t let your guard down until we have put the sarcophagus back,” Alex said.

They moved down the passageway and into the empty tomb. 

“ _Lumos_ ,” Alex muttered.

The cavernous space lit up at once and they could see the outline where the sarcophagus had been.

“Right lads, you’re going to have to adjust the weight slightly so I can help you get this thing in place. I can’t hold a wand and help put it down at the same time.”

Once they were ready, all of them walked forward slowly until they reached the right place. Alex guided them in lowering the sarcophagus to make sure they got it right the first time around, and when they did, a pulse of magic was felt.

“What was that?” Adam asked, sounding worried.

“We won’t know what’s happened until we get out of here.”

All of them trudged back up the passageway and dreaded what they would find at the other end, but when they came out of the tomb, the winds had abated so much that they no longer needed the suits to protect them.

“It’s a miracle,” one of them said, taking his helmet off.

“Where is Lloyd?” another asked.

“I’m here,” a faint voice reached them.

A couple of them went to find him and see if he needed healing.

“Do you still hear the voice Bill?” Adam asked, eyeing him critically.

“Yes, but faintly. It’s saying that we denied his right to blood, and that next time we won’t get away from him,” he replied.

“There won’t be a next time for any of us. I will inform Gringotts that we would not be safe excavating any tombs predating the first dynasty. They may not like it, but I doubt they want to lose some of the best curse breakers they have by actively putting them in danger,” Alex informed his team.

Over the next few hours everything that had been removed from the tomb was put back, and they sealed the entrance so no one else could get in without their knowledge.

Gringotts had initially grumbled at the loss of profit, but once they heard the full story they had reluctantly agreed that it was for the best. 

Bill returned to his flat exhausted, and contemplated whether the job was right for him. He loved the work, but what if he ever made a mistake again and someone was killed? How would he be able to live with himself? 

A few days later Bill was called into work to start another project for the bank, and this time he vowed that if he had the slightest inkling that anything was wrong, he would tell his superior straight away. That was they best way to try and avoid a situation like the one he’d just been in, and it was also the only way he wouldn’t blame himself if someone died.


End file.
